US to seek China’s help to penalise North Korea

The Obama administration intends to put more energy into working with other major powers – especially China – to increase economic pressure on impoverished North Korea after Pyongyang’s defiant launch of a long-range rocket.

US officials have met at the United Nations Security Council to work out new penalties that could generate change in North Korea, which is already the most heavily sanctioned country in the world.

The major powers may seek to further pare North Korea’s limited financial ties with the outside world and impose more intrusive inspections on its sea and air cargo to prevent proliferation of weapons.

“North Korea will only truly strengthen itself by abiding by international norms, living up to its commitments and international obligations, and working to feed its citizens, to educate its children and to win the trust of its neighbours," said United States National Security Council spokesman, Tommy Vietor.

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told CNN that the US was still assessing Wednesday’s rocket launch, which apparently resulted in North Korea’s successful deployment of a satellite into orbit.

North Korea says the launch was for scientific purposes, but the US and other countries say it could be a step toward Pyongyang building an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Mr Panetta said the US was boosting its military presence in the region. “One of the reasons we’re rebalancing in the Pacific is to deal with the threat from North Korea," he said.

Administration officials regard the threat from Pyongyang as an important but second-tier security issue.

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A North Korean rocket launch in April resulted in failure. However, the successful launch this week indicates that the regime has taken a step toward the capability to carry a nuclear warhead to the US, building pressure on the White House to reconsider a policy that has so far been unable to slow the communist nation’s rocket program.

The launch is worrying, experts say, not only because of what North Korea might do with the technology, but because the cash-starved regime might sell the technology to past customers of its missile hardware, such as Iran.

The administration has tried sanctions as well as incentives to change North Korea’s course over the last four years, with little success. Its overarching approach has been “strategic patience": it has been waiting for the regime of Kim Jong-un, who succeeded his late father last year, to demonstrate its willingness to negotiate with world powers on its nuclear and missile programs.